Hungary, Vietnam to beef up bilateral ties

Hungarian President Janos Ader pledged here on Thursday to beef up ties with Vietnam in areas of education, water supply and waste water treatment as well as agriculture.
Ader made the remarks at a press briefing held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Thursday after holding talks with Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang during his visit to Vietnam.
The visiting Hungarian official said his country will double the number of scholarships for Vietnam in the coming time, while providing preferential credit sources to help Vietnam deal with water supply and waste water treatment.
"There remain some minor technical issues that the two sides need to negotiate with each other to implement these projects," said the Hungarian president.
In addition, Hungary and Vietnam are committed to establish a consortium in agriculture, said the president.
"The consortium will create legal, financial, logistics frameworks to help Vietnamese agricultural products be sold at better prices, bringing benefits to both sides, Vietnamese farmers as well as Vietnamese agriculture sector," Ader added.
Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, for his part, said at the press briefing that Vietnam-Hungary traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation are witnessing progresses, especially in politics and economics.
Despite global economic downturn in the first eight months of 2014, the bilateral trade revenue between Vietnam and Hungary was equivalent to that of the whole year of 2013, said the Vietnamese president.
The two sides agreed to continue effective implementation of Vietnam-Hungary Intergovernmental Committee on Economics, encourage and facilitate the two countries' enterprises to boost exchanges, and seek business opportunities, according to the Vietnamese president.
"Vietnam welcomes and creates favorable conditions for Hungarian enterprises to invest into sectors that Vietnam demands and Hungary has strengths such as infrastructure development, energy, environmental technology and equipment, food processing, banking, pharmacy, and healthcare among others," said the Vietnamese president.
Vietnamese side also called for Hungary to offer more official development assistance (ODA) for projects that Vietnam is in urgent need including those in environment, afforestation, waste treatment and community health, said the Vietnamese president.
Ader is on tour in Vietnam from Tuesday to Sunday, said Vietnam 's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Press and Information Department.